The show premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4, 2002 and September 25, 2002. It was broadcast across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America by the anime television network, Animax; and across the United States, Nigeria, Canada, and United Kingdom by Cartoon Network, YTV, and AnimeCentral (English and Japanese) respectively. It was distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment.

The storyline moves at a leisurely pace,[6] and has multiple layers[7] — the viewer is often fed false information and red herrings, potentially leading to confusion until the true nature of events is unveiled towards the end of the series.[8] It relies on character development and has few action scenes; most of the time character interaction is presented in the form of dialogue.[6] English language reception to .hack//Sign has been generally positive,[1][9] but some of these sources have negatively criticised the series as a result of its slow pacing and character-driven storyline.[7]

Contents

.hack//Sign starts in a fictional 2009, introducing a computer virus called Pluto's Kiss as the cause of a massive Internet shutdown.[10] The results are described as catastrophic:[11] traffic lights shut down, planes collide in midair, and the United States' nuclear missiles are nearly launched. As a consequence, cyberspace is subjected to severe restrictions. The virus affects all operating systems except for one, Altimit OS, the only operating system immune to all computer viruses.[11]

Two years later free access to the networks recovers, bringing with it the release of The World: the first online game since Pluto's Kiss, developed for Altimit OS.[10]The World is portrayed as a fantasy setting wherein player characters can be different classes, adventure by themselves to go searching through dungeons or join with others and form parties, fight monsters and level up, collect new items and participate in special events.[2] At the center of each server is a Root Town, which contain shops, a save point, and the Chaos Gate that players use to travel between servers in the game.[13]

Harald Hoerwick is introduced as the creator of The World. He secretly designed the game as a virtual womb in order to create the ultimate artificial intelligence (AI), by receiving emotional and psychological data from the players. His motivation is revealed to be the death of Emma Wielant, a German poet whom he was in love with; the AI, who was named Aura, would serve as the "daughter" they never had.[14] Harald left the gathering of the required data for Aura's development at the care of the core system of The World itself, an omnipresent AI called Morganna Mode Gone.[11] The storyline of .hack//Sign, set in early 2010,[10] revolves around the premise of Morganna attempting to stall the growth of Aura indefinitely, after realizing that she will lose her purpose once Aura is complete.[citation needed]

.hack//Sign follows the story about Tsukasa being mind-trapped into the game. Despite being a "fantasy quest type adventure", it does not rely on action sequences.[2][9] Instead, the show is driven by mystery, slowly revealing its secrets to the viewer while paying much attention to the individual characters.[6] Questions like what happened to Tsukasa in the real world, who he really is and why he is unable to log out are driving points of the story.[9]

Soon after the beginning of the series Tsukasa is led to a hidden area. There he meets Morganna, depicted as a voice without physical appearance, and Aura, who appears as a young girl clad entirely in white, floating asleep above a bed. The storyline introduces Morganna as an ally, but her real intentions are unknown at this point.

As the story progresses many characters are introduced, some who want to help, some who have ulterior motives. Then more questions arise as to "what is happening in the game itself, who are these various characters, what are their true goals and what will happen to Tsukasa".[9] All the while he is seen struggling with his increasingly dire situation as well as his own social and emotional shortcomings. Tsukasa isolates himself, but eventually he begins to get closer to other players, and builds strong relationships with some of them; the most important is the one born between him and Subaru, a kind and thoughtful female Heavy Axeman.[9][15]

In the meantime, the anime follows the quest for the Key of the Twilight(黄昏の鍵,Tasogare no Kagi), a legendary item rumored to have the ability to bypass the system in The World.[7] Some characters want the Key to gain the power this supposedly confers. Others believe the item will provide Tsukasa with a way to log out. Despite their reasons for seeking it, everyone agrees that it is related to Tsukasa in some way, as he is also a factor bypassing the system in the game. His body being in a coma in the real world adds a sense of urgency to the quest.

Near the end of the series Tsukasa's real-life identity takes a more central place in the storyline, particularly in relation to his growing bond with Subaru. The series shows his fear and insecurity as he confesses to her that he is probably a girl in the real world.[16] It is also at this point when Tsukasa is told Morganna's plan by a highly skilled hacker called Helba. Morganna conceived the plan to link Aura to a character who could corrupt her with negative emotional data, placing her in a state where she would never awaken. The chosen character was Tsukasa, as his mind was filled with distressful memories of his real life. Helba also suggests that when Aura is able to awaken, "the Key of the Twilight will take form".[17]

The story reaches its climax when Tsukasa confronts Morganna. Then the viewer sees him declaring that he is no longer afraid of her or of reality, and will log out because there is someone he wants to see.[18] This statement triggers Aura's awakening, allowing Tsukasa to log out. The last scenes feature an emotional encounter between Tsukasa's real-life self, finally shown to be a girl, and the real-life player behind Subaru.

Tsukasa is the protagonist character of the story and plays a Wavemaster. At the start of the series he is seen waking up to find himself trapped in The World, unable to log out. He is initially depicted as a cynical introvert who tends to avoid others as much as possible, but his character development shows him growing to realize there are people who care about him.[19] One of these people is Subaru, a female Heavy Axeman introduced as the leader of the Crimson Knights, a player organization designed to fight injustice (such as player killing) in The World. Most of the time Subaru is the only character preventing the Crimson Knights from running wild; she knows that they must be restrained from abusing their power. She eventually joins in the search of a way to help Tsukasa, and builds a close relationship with him.[15]

Also close to Tsukasa is Mimiru, a Heavy Blade who is poor at planning things out and following through on them. She is the first player to meet Tsukasa, and later forms a bond with him and vows to protect him. She usually hangs out with Bear, trying to solve the mystery of Tsukasa's inability to log out. Bear is an older player of the game and plays a Blademaster. He appears as cool and collected, always willing to help out newbies. He also conducts research in the real world on Tsukasa. One of Bear's acquaintances is BT, a plotting and scheming Wavemaster.[citation needed]

BT teams up with Crim and Sora to find the Key of the Twilight. Crim is a powerful Long Arm, friend of Subaru who founded the Crimson Knights organization with her, but afterwards left it as he found it did not match his personality. Amiable, easygoing and sociable; he prefers to keep the real world and the game separate. Crim's stated goal when playing is simply to have fun,[20] although he never turns down a chance to help somebody in need. Sora is a Twin Blade player killer who enjoys hunting players down, especially attractive female ones, and demanding their Member Addresses in exchange for their lives. He sees Tsukasa as the strongest link to the Key of the Twilight, and starts working with BT in the quest for it.[citation needed]

The project development began in early 2000 as a joint effort between Bandai and CyberConnect2, with the original idea of producing an online game.[21] In online games people can interact with each other and create their own stories. The producers wanted to design a game that would offer the players the same experience, but they later thought it would be more appealing with its own storyline, like in standard offline role-playing video game.[21] According to Daisuke Uchiyama, sub-leader of Bandai's video game planning department, the result was a challenge to the RPG genre itself:[22] an offline RPG, entitled .hack, set in a simulated MMORPG named The World.[21]

For The World's design, writer Kazunori Ito did an extensive research on online games available at the time:[21] the staff played titles such as Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy XI, and Ultima Online.[23] Nevertheless, according to Hiroshi Matsuyama (president of CyberConnect2), they were not actively looking to make the fictional game seem like a real-life one.[21] Instead, the idea was to create a "gigantic game system that, if the CC Corporation (the creators of The World in the game) actually existed, it would make sense for them to be behind" [emphasis added];[21] a game described by Matsuyama as largely "futuristic and alien".[21]

As the project started shortly before the PlayStation 2's release, the authors seized the opportunity to make the .hack game on the new platform.[22] This decision allowed them to develop into unexpected directions.[22] Shin Unozawa, general manager of Bandai's game department, suggested dividing the game into four parts and release them in three-month intervals.[24] The idea being to follow the four panel manga style as well as to keep sales constant throughout the year.[24][25] Taking advantage of the PlayStation 2's capability to read DVD-Video, the authors also decided making an OVA series (.hack//Liminality) comprised by four episodes, one to go with each game.[22][24] Nevertheless, they still felt the need to bolster the project with something more, therefore they decided to produce .hack//Sign, a TV show timed to air with the first game's release.[24] For Kōichi Mashimo it was a hectic schedule: he was directing both animated projects, and was also in the midst of developing the Noir anime series.[24]

The real-world scenes' raw presentation denotes the predominance of The World over reality.[26]

The virtual environment depicted in .hack//Sign draws on medieval imagery:[26] settings range from a Venice-like city to a Gothic stone church, passing by settlements such as villages and castles; the series' scenery shows examples of Celtic art.[13] Natural landscapes such as forests and tundras complete the setting design, which overall displays the fantasy theme seen in most MMORPGs.[2]

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's character designs follow the fantasy theme as well,[27] drawing influence from the sword and sorcerysubgenre in particular.[28] Character designs also draw on Celtic imagery: Director Mashimo acknowledged similarities between Bear's design and Mel Gibson in his role as William Wallace,[29] an example of Celtic warrior.[30] All the characters are given distinctive patterns resembling tattoos, the visual representation of a fictional gameplay aspect called Wave.[13]

In contrast with The World's scenery, real-world sequences are minimalist in their presentation.[26] They display faces frequently obscured by shadows or hidden by extreme angles. The dialogue is not heard, but shown through title cards: when someone speaks the screen blacks out and a line of red or blue text appears with the dialogue.[12] The combination of visual and acoustic noise makes reality appear as "some kind of less authentic, alternate channel".[12][26]

Yuki Kajiura provides a soundtrack permeated by the Celtic style and gaming theme of the series.[31] The songs feature synthesizer and strings compositions,[31] as well as vocals consisting of English chanting.[32]Celtic influence is prominent in themes such as "Key of the Twilight" and "Open Your Heart".[33][34] Performed by Emily Bindiger, "Key of the Twilight" blends a pulsing drum and bass mix with guitar intonations.[31] "Open Your Heart", on the other hand, combines Bindiger's contralto vocals with an uilleann pipes solo.[34] The .hack//Sign soundtrack also features vocals by Yuriko Kaida. "Mimiru" has her humming across a saxophone melody performed by Kazuo Takeda;[35] in "Das Wandern" she sings over a lone piano.[35]

European influence is prominent in instrumental pieces as well, "Foreigners" being a prime example.[31] Reminiscent of a classic Irish diddy, the track comprises a flute dancing across a tribal-like percussion set.[33] Orchestral music includes pieces such as "Fear" and "Kiss". "Fear" features an electronic melody wrapped around a digital-beat groove,[31][33] mixed with a distant voice uttering "feeaarr!".[33] Combining "the childlike humanity into a frightening digital reality", the song is an "analogy to the series' plot".[31] "Kiss" is a theme that entirely features traditional symphony, although only using a few performers.[33] It is a violin and piano mix, used to set mood in the series.[31]

The opening theme of the series is "Obsession". Performed by Kajiura's musical group See-Saw, the track features an electric guitar and rapid electronic beat.[33] The closing theme is "Yasashii Yoake" (優しい夜明け, "gentle dawn"), also performed by See-Saw.[31] It is a blend of Japanese vocals, an Irish bouzouki, acoustic guitars and percussion.[33] Both themes were released as a single on May 22, 2002 by Victor Entertainment.[36][37] Three original soundtracks with vocals Emily Bindiger, with music and arrangement (and lyrics in vocals themes) by Yuki Kajiura were released. The first original soundtrack was released in North America with the limited edition of the first .hack//Sign DVD.[38][39] This album is a mix of vocal themes and BGM. Most of the vocal songs and a couple of BGM tracks have strong Celtic influence. The BGM is completed with tracks with noticeable console-RPG style.[40] The second original soundtrack was released in North America with the limited edition of the second .hack//Sign DVD.[41][42] All of the tracks are fairly slow, with catchy beats. The final music soundtrack was titled ".hack//Extra Soundtrack".[43] In North America this soundtrack was included with the limited edition of the fourth .hack//Sign DVD.[44]DSTV-channel/full>

Despite its visual concept, .hack//Sign is not a sword and sorcery story, but an exposition-driven character study.[1] It proposes "a trip inside the psychology and soul of an emotionally bruised, but slowly healing person."[4] Themes range from psychological to sociological and are dealt with using classical dialogue as well as image-only introspection.[4][5][9]

Among the most prominent themes in .hack//Sign are anxiety, its causes, and the effects it has upon human behavior.[4] Scenes of the real world show people living an apprehensive, even painful reality:[26] characters' background includes subjects such as dysfunctional families and physical impediments.[citation needed] Tsukasa himself is psychologically affected by years of physical abuse and neglect,[5] a state that gets worse throughout his experience in the game, where his reality disappears and he begins to doubt his own existence.[4] When anxiety is excessive (like in the case depicted by Tsukasa's story) and can not be relieved by practical problem-solving methods, "the human ego uses maneuvers such as a defense mechanism to deny, falsify or even distort reality."[4] The anime series explores this process as the root of emotional and behavioral issues such as detachment and isolation.[5][9]

Escapism, if only as representing a consequence of anxiety, is a significant theme in .hack//Sign.[4] The series explores how technology, such as the Internet and online games, can be used to escape reality.[9]The World is portrayed as a means that people use "to escape their lives", assuming roles online that compensate for their shortcomings in the real world:[26] to some, it is a place where they can overcome their physical limitations; to others, it is a social outlet or a world free of rules.[citation needed] In addition, the preference given to the virtual world over reality represents the intrusion of technology in the social structure:[26] as people engage in "the wide potential of cyberspace", they become more withdrawn in the real world.[26]

Interpersonal relationships is a prominent theme too.[5] The show explores the psychological effects social connections have upon people with emotional needs.[9] Initially Tsukasa shows no respect for any values or other people, but as he engages in relationships, he begins to gradually change, learning to care about others and acquiring the strength to face the reality of his life.[4]

Originally, .hack//Sign was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4, 2002 and September 25, 2002.[citation needed] The same year Victor Entertainment released the entire score in three albums, along with a single containing the opening and ending of the series.[45]

In North America, .hack//Sign was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment,[46] and dubbed by PCB Productions, who are known for their adaptations of fare like Geneshaft.[1] The dub aired on Cartoon Network between February 1, 2003 and March 1, 2004.[47] The series was also released on DVD, spanning six volumes. The limited edition ran from March 4, 2003 to March 16, 2004, followed by the regular edition from March 18, 2003 to March 16, 2004.[48] A recap episode called Evidence and the DVD only episode Intermezzo were included in the sixth volume, and Unison was only included in its limited edition.[49] Following the multimedia concept of the franchise,[50] Bandai also acquired the license for the .hack games,[46] the first one being released the same month the anime series began broadcast.[51]

The multimedia approach is shown through the DVD release as well. The limited edition not only included the three soundtrack albums of the series, but also the soundtrack of .hack//Liminality and a demo disc of the first game.[38][41][44][52]

The series was compiled three times. The first DVD boxset was released on October 26, 2004 by the name .hack//Sign – Complete Collection, and the second, more affordable one on August 22, 2006 by the name .hack//Sign: Anime Legends Complete Collection. Neither of these releases contains the OVA episode Unison.[53][54]

Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment, Funimation announced at SDCC 2013, that they acquired four .hack titles including SIGN.[55] In 2015, Funimation released the DVD boxset .hack//Sign: The Complete Series, which contains all 26 episodes, and both OVA episodes.

An information book about Project .hack. was published by Fujimi Shobo in June, 2003. The book, called Encyclopedia .hack (ISBN4-8291-7530-3), is a compilation of theories and information about storyline, setting, and characters of the franchise, taken from the series itself.[56] Another information book about Project .hack was published by Softbank Publishing on September 27, 2003. This publication was called hack//analysis (ISBN4-7973-2455-4) and, unlike Encyclopedia, included never-before-seen information on The World and the characters of the franchise. Information about .hack//Sign characters like Bear and BT was expanded in this book.[57]

The reception for the series has generally been positive. Holly Ellinwood of Anime Active saluted Ito's "well thought out, even provocative" storyline in her 2006 review of the series, saying that it is "far more cerebral, even existential than the anime's other less sophisticated contemporaries."[9] Nevertheless, reviewers agree that .hack//Sign is a show viewers either love or hate.[1][2][58] According to Mike Toole from Anime Jump, it "deserves to be both maligned and admired".[1] NeedCoffee's reviewer regarded the show as "one of the most controversial titles in recent years".[58] Negative criticism focuses on the slow-paced story and the almost total absence of action sequences, elements which are also considered as what makes the series "most unique".[6][8]

The series generally receives high marks for technical aspects. Chris Beveridge from Anime On DVD feels the animation is "gorgeous" and the "colors are lush and vivid".[2] Tasha Robinson from SCI FI Weekly says that "The World's hugely varied settings provide ever-changing backgrounds,"[8] which are considered by Rob Lineberger of DVD Verdict as "detailed and innovative".[7] In his review of the first English release, Mike Toole describes .hack//Sign as "a beautiful, rich-looking series, with frequently sumptuous character design and animation that's only emphasized by the quality of the DVD."[1] A negative opinion is expressed by Rob Lineberger himself, who says that "many of the animated sequences were static characters with slightly moving lips."[7] Tasha Robinson, instead, shows a more neutral perspective on this subject, saying that "the animation is simple but attractive."[8] A concern several reviewers express is that the gaming environment the series tries to simulate should be more crowded, being a game supposedly extremely popular worldwide.[1][8] A different opinion is that of Anime Academy's reviewer, who writes that the anime's depiction of the game-world setting is realistic and accurate.[59]

Bandai's release earned praise for the quality of the video transfer and the DVD extras (particularly in the limited edition).[1][2][60] Reviewers appreciated the English voice acting: Lauren Synger from DVD Vision Japan feels that "everyone was very appropriate to their characters", noting that Brianne Sidal did an excellent work capturing Saiga's Tsukasa.[61] Lineberger, in contrast, finds the English dub to be "antiseptic and uninspired".[7] Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network thinks for her part that Mimiru sounded bland and poorly executed, but overall, the actors did a good job "delivering their lines and giving life to their characters."[32]

Ridwan Khan of Animefringe welcomes the "excellent" .hack//Sign score composed by Yuki Kajiura,[31] which is hailed by Mark McPherson from Anime Boredom as "the best orchestrated track ever made for a television series".[6] Most reviewers agree that the soundtrack is one of the series' most prominent features.[1][7][59] A negative criticism on the music is that it tends to overwhelm the dialogue in the first couple of episodes.[1][2] Kōichi Mashimo has stated that he specifically had the music louder than the dialogue as he tried to do some experimentation, and it was his intent to draw complaints from the audience.[29] Still, Chris Beveridge thinks it is an "interesting device to sort of ratchet up the speed of things."[2]

^ abBear: "The reason Tsukasa is still barely able to be involved with people is because of Subaru. If I was the enemy, I would strike at her." BT: "If that happens, then Tsukasa would surely be unable to recover. (...) We should not think of those two separately." .hack//Sign, episode 24, Net Slum.

^Tsukasa: "Is there really a place for me to return to?" Subaru: "There is. As long as you desire it." Tsukasa: "I don't like this place. But... (...) I thought that I was a guy. But that's because my memories were altered. (...) I think the real me is a girl. Do you still want to see me [in the real world]?" Subaru: "Yes. Because..." Tsukasa: "Because?" Subaru: "Because I've been touched by your trembling soul." .hack//Sign, episode 24, Net Slum

^Bear: "When Tsukasa is able to log out, then Aura will awaken." Helba: "I believe so. And at that moment, the Key of the Twilight will take form." .hack//Sign, episode 24, Net Slum.

^Morganna: "If you obey, I do not need to exercise my power. Do not make me use my power. You know how truly powerful I am!" Tsukasa: "I'm no longer afraid of you or my father! There is someone that I want to see [close-up of Subaru's face]. So I'm going to return, return to the place where I belong!" .hack//Sign, episode 26, Return.

^"Most Wanted MMO — Interview with Hiroshi Matsuyama". G-CIA (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 4, 2005. Retrieved February 4, 2005. ｢PSO｣｢FF11｣｢エヴァークエスト｣｢ウルティマオンライン｣｢ディアブロ｣｢リネージュ｣｢ラグナロクオンライン｣・・・たいていのオンラインゲームは遊んで研究済みですよ。" Translation: "PSO, FF11, EverQuest, Ultima Online, Diablo, Lineage, Ragnarok Online... We did our research by playing most of the online games out there.Internet Archive copy.

1.
Fantasy
–
Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature

2.
Mystery fiction
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Mystery fiction is a genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be solved. In a closed circle of suspects, each suspect must have a credible motive, the central character must be a detective who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts fairly presented to the reader. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element, Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism. Mystery fiction may involve a mystery where the solution does not have to be logical. This contrasted with parallel titles of the names which contained conventional hardboiled crime fiction. The first use of mystery in this sense was by Dime Mystery, the genre of mystery novels is a young form of literature that has developed over the past 200 years. The rise of literacy began in the years of the English Renaissance and, as began to read over time. As people became more individualistic in their thinking, they developed a respect for human reason, perhaps a reason that mystery fiction was unheard of before the 1800s was due in part to the lack of true police forces. Before the Industrial Revolution, many of the towns would have constables, naturally, the constable would be aware of every individual in the town, and crimes were either solved quickly or left unsolved entirely. As people began to crowd into cities, police forces became institutionalized and the need for detectives was realized – thus the mystery novel arose. An early work of mystery fiction, Das Fräulein von Scuderi by E. T. A. Hoffmann, was an influence on The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe as may have been Voltaires Zadig. Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Woman in White was published in 1860, in 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes, whose mysteries are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. The genre began to expand near the turn of century with the development of dime novels, books were especially helpful to the genre, with many authors writing in the genre in the 1920s. An important contribution to fiction in the 1920s was the development of the juvenile mystery by Edward Stratemeyer. Stratemeyer originally developed and wrote the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries written under the Franklin W. Dixon, the massive popularity of pulp magazines in the 1930s and 1940s increased interest in mystery fiction. The detective fiction author Ellery Queen is also credited with continuing interest in mystery fiction, interest in mystery fiction continues to this day because of various television shows which have used mystery themes and the many juvenile and adult novels which continue to be published. There is some overlap with thriller or suspense novels and authors in those genres may consider themselves mystery novelists. Comic books and like graphic novels have carried on the tradition, Mystery fiction can be divided into numerous categories, including traditional mystery, legal thriller, medical thriller, cozy mystery, police procedural, and hardboiled

3.
Yuki Kajiura
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Yuki Kajiura is a Japanese composer and music producer. She also assisted Toshihiko Sahashi with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Kajiura has also composed for video games, including the cutscene music for Xenosaga II and the entire Xenosaga III game soundtrack. She composed the music for NHKs April 2014 morning drama Hanako to Anne and she has also jokingly called Bindiger her English teacher at Anime Expo 2003. One of Kajiuras solo projects include FictionJunction, the project involves collaboration with artists such as Yuuka Nanri, Asuka Kato, and Kaori Oda. FictionJunction Yuuka, with Nanri as the vocalist, is the most prolific of these collaborations, in 2004, the duo produced the opening and ending songs for Kōichi Mashimos Madlax and in the next year, published their first collaborative album, Destination. In October 2007, it was announced that Yuki Kajiura would be attending the performances of the Eminence Orchestras concert, A Night in Fantasia 2007 – Symphonic Anime Edition, the 2014 series Aldnoah. Zeros opening theme Heavenly Blue was composed by Kajiura and was performed by Kalafina

4.
Bee Train
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Bee Train Production, commonly referred to simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Originally, Bee Train was a subsidiary of Production I. G along with Xebec but in February 2006, it ended its relationship and this studio-as-hospital approach was allegedly invented by Mashimo during his prolonged stay in an intensive care unit and has been Bee Trains official strategy ever since. The first projects published by the studio in 1999 were anime adaptations of game franchises popular in Japan, PoPoLoCrois, Arc the Lad, Wild Arms, Twilight Venom. Later, Bandai Visual joined forces with Bee Train to produce an anime OVA based on the famous. hack video game series. Simultaneously, they decided to promote the games with a television series. The OVA became known as. hack//Liminality and its four episodes were added as bonus material to each of the four games of the franchise. In 2006, Bee Train produced. hack//Roots, an anime to the. hack//G. U. Games and a successor to Sign. Bee Trains first independent project was Noir, aired in 2001, the series was produced at the same time as Sign and became the first installment of Bee Trains girls-with-guns trilogy. Although the girls-with-guns series are considered Bee Trains and, particularly, Mashimos signature works, from 1997 on, the studios headquarters were located in Kokubunji, Tokyo, although in 2001, it moved to another part of the city. Two more studio locations were acquired in 2004 and 2006, currently the main office now resides in Musashino, Tokyo with C-Station Co. Ltd. department in the Kokunbunji office. The company has been dormant since 2012 due to Kōichi Mashimos retirement from the anime industry, one frequent technique that Mashimo uses as part of his studio-as-hospital strategy is brainstorming new anime concepts with his colleagues in the state of alcohol intoxication. For example, according to him, that is how the idea of the connection between the two female leads of Madlax was born. Another typical Bee Train gesture is to invite Japanese voice actors who have worked on some of their projects to voice the characters similar to the ones they voiced before. For example, this list includes Hōko Kuwashima, Aya Hisakawa, the famous Japanese composer and music producer Yuki Kajiura has created musical scores for multiple projects by Bee Train since Noir. Kajiura has provided music for Sign, Liminality, Madlax, Tsubasa Chronicle, when explaining his preference for Kajiuras work, Mashimo once commented that shes a storyteller who just happens to know how to write music. Another frequent collaboration is that between Bee Train and the musical duo Ali Project, generally, the music plays a just as important role in Bee Trains works as visuals and dialogue do, sometimes even drowning the latter. Bee Train also participated in the works as a general for hire company

5.
Australasia
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Australasia, a region of Oceania, comprises Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. Charles de Brosses coined the term in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes and he derived it from the Latin for south of Asia and differentiated the area from Polynesia and the southeast Pacific. The bulk of Australasia sits on the Indo-Australian Plate, together with India, physiographically, Australasia includes New Zealand, Australia, and Melanesia, New Guinea and neighbouring islands north and east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. The designation is applied to all the lands and islands of the Pacific Ocean lying between the equator and latitude 47° south. Most of Australasia lies on the portion of the Indo-Australian Plate, flanked by the Indian Ocean to the west. Sometimes the term encompasses the island of New Guinea. Many organisations whose names include the prefix Australasian Society of, limit their scope of operation to just Australia and New Zealand. In the past, Australasia has been used as a name for combined Australia/New Zealand sporting teams, examples include tennis between 1905 and 1915, when New Zealand and Australia combined to compete in the Davis Cup international tournament, and at the Olympic Games of 1908 and 1912. From an ecological perspective the Australasia ecozone forms a region with a common geologic and evolutionary history. In this context, Australasia is limited to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Wallace Line marks the biological divide from the Indomalaya ecozone of tropical Asia – Borneo and Bali lie on the western, Asian side. These three land masses have been separated from other continents, and from one another, for millions of years, all of Australasia shares the Antarctic flora, although the northern, tropical islands also share many plants with Southeast Asia. Mainland Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania are separated from one another by shallow continental shelves and they share a similar fauna which includes marsupial and monotreme mammals and ratite birds. Eucalypts are the predominant trees in much of Australia and New Guinea, New Zealand has no extant native land mammals aside from bats, but also had ratite birds, including the kiwi and the extinct moa. Media related to Australasia at Wikimedia Commons

6.
Madman Entertainment
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Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes Australian and foreign films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. Madman is one of the entertainment companies in Australia. It employs approx 100 people and has a turnover of around A$50 million. Its headquarters is in Richmond, Victoria, Madman has secured the local release rights to popular titles including Sailor Moon, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira, Steins, Gate and almost all of Studio Ghiblis catalogue. In addition to DVD sales, Madman manages the theatrical release of some of their titles, according to market research, Madman accounts for 97% of the total anime home media market in Australia. Later on in 1997, Madman started to distribute anime from ADV Films along with Siren Entertainment, in 2001 Madman Entertainment bought Sirens distribution equipment and established The AV Channel, allowing Madman to distribute their own titles. As of 2008, only some of Manga Entertainment Australias titles from the 1990s have been distributed by Madman, some of their DVD releases have been jointly mastered with Britains MVM Films or Revelation Films to save costs, and are therefore dual-region. A few DVD titles from Madman, such as the Oh My Goddess, oVAs, are all-region or multi-region DVDs in the NTSC format, imported from the US and repackaged for sale in Australia and New Zealand. Madman & Manga UK also work together on PAL DVD & Region B Blu-ray masters and video transfers, a growing selection of manga titles translated by Tokyopop in the United States and Chuang Yi in Singapore are being imported and distributed through Madman Entertainment. In February 2008, Madman announced that they would also be distributing manga titles from Viz Media, Madman currently distributes manga from Viz Media, Dark Horse Comics, Tokyopop, and recently from Yen Press with the 2012 release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Madman launched in 1996 solely as a distribution company, but has since expanded. Madman also has a distribution arm called Madman Cinema. In addition, the company distributes original series produced by Australias Special Broadcasting Service on DVD, at the 2008 Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Madman announced plans to explore new distribution methods. The company now offers streaming of selected anime episodes, beginning with the first episode of School Rumble. Madman now has a sub-page, Madman Scereening Room, dedicated to video streaming, Madman has also begun releasing Blu-ray Disc titles, starting with The Transformers, The Movie in June 2009. On 1 June 2009, Madman Entertainment released an English adaption of Tamagotchi, The Movie, Madman also intended to dub the films sequel, Tamagotchi, Happiest Story in the Universe. But the dub was cancelled for unknown reasons, in April 2008, the company announced a collaboration with British company Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make at least two films together over the three years, starting with Tyrannosaur

7.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa

8.
Beez Entertainment
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Most of the anime and films that has been distributed and licensed by Bandai Visual has been released under the Emotion label. Since the reorganisation of Bandai Namco Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the groups Visual and its subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company, Limited, and Lantis Company, Limited music publishing labels. Bandai Visual is currently a fully owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings, Bandai Namco announced on November 8,2007 that it would buy the voting shares it did not own between that date and December 10,2007 and turn the company into a wholly owned subsidiary. On December 18,2007, Bandai Namco announced that it owned 93. 63% of Bandai Visuals shares since the end of November, the remaining shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on February 15,2008 after Bandai Namco acquired the remaining 10% of the shares. Bandai Entertainment is a subsidiary of Bandai America, founded in 1998. Their first releases were under the AnimeVillage. com label up until 1999 when Bandai Entertainment started releasing its titles, despite its name it was not directly established by Bandai Visual. Originally separate from Bandai Visual USA, Namco Holdings announced that Bandai Entertainment would absorb Bandai Visual USA in 2008, the company also licensed manga series for release with English translation, and published American-made graphic novels. As with many North American anime distributors, Bandai Entertainment offered a fan support program to public screenings of licensed content at anime clubs. The company confirmed on January 2,2012 that they would stop offering new DVD, Blu-ray disc and manga releases by February, Bandai Entertainment was restructured to focus on licensing anime to other companies. On August 30,2012, Bandai America announced that it shut down Bandai Entertainment and discontinue distributing their home video. They made their final shipment to retailers on November 30,2012, many former Bandai Entertainment titles have been re-licensed by companies like Funimation, Discotek Media, Nozomi Entertainment & Sentai Filmworks. In 2017, Bandai Entertainment was temporarily relaunched by Manga Entertainment to release both seasons of Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex on Blu-ray, Beez Entertainment was the European branch of Bandai Entertainment that also distributed anime and music and were also owned by Bandai Namco Holdings. The name is an acronym for Bandai Entertainment European Zone, following the discontinuation of Bandai Entertainment, Beez has also stopped releasing anime in the European market. Their anime releases were licensed in North America by Bandai Entertainment, Bandai Visual USA was established in 2005 to distribute and market Bandai Visuals productions in North America. Unlike Bandai Entertainment, Bandai Visual USAs releases were of high quality and were aimed at collectors and their titles were released under the Honnêamise label. Bandai Visual USAs anime products were distributed in North America initially by Image Entertainment and later, Geneon Entertainment USA, on May 23,2008, Bandai Namco Holdings announced that Bandai Visual USA would be merged into Bandai Entertainment. Bandai Visual USA was dissolved on July 1,2008, Honnêamise was Bandai Visual USAs boutique label that distributed deluxe editions of anime and artsier products. The labels namesake comes from Royal Space Force, The Wings of Honnêamise, the label was shut down on July 1,2008 when Bandai Visual USA was absorbed into Bandai Entertainment

9.
Northern America
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Northern America is the northernmost subcontinent of North America. It lies directly north of the region of Middle America, consisting of Mexico, the Caribbean, the land border between the two regions coincides with the border between the United States and Mexico. Geopolitically, according to the scheme of geographic regions and subregions, Northern America consists of Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, maps using the term Northern America date back to 1755, when the region was occupied by France, Great Britain, and Spain. The Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America in 1813 applied to Mexico, Central America Middle America Americas Anglo-America

10.
Funimation
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Funimation is an American entertainment, anime, and foreign licensing company based in Flower Mound, Texas. The studio is one of the distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America alongside Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks. It was founded on May 9,1994 by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy as FUNimation Productions, with funding by Daniel Cocanougher and his family, Funimation was sold to Navarre Corporation on May 11,2005 and the company was renamed FUNimation Entertainment. In April 2011, Navarre sold Funimation to a group of investors including Fukunaga for $24 million, around the same time, the companys trademark ball, star and blue bar were dropped from its logo and the company was renamed to simply Funimation. In May 2013, Funimation consolidated its divisions under its new holding company Group 1200 Media, Funimation is a portmanteau of the English words fun and animation. The company was founded on May 9,1994 by Japanese-born businessman Gen Fukunaga, fukunagas uncle, Nagafumi Hori, was working as a producer for Toei Company, Hori approached Gen about licensing Dragon Ball to the United States. He proposed that if Fukunaga could start a company and raise enough money. Fukunaga met with co-worker Daniel Cocanougher whose family owned a mill in Decatur, Texas and convinced Cocanoughers family to sell their business. The company was formed in Silicon Valley, California as Funimation Productions in 1994. They initially collaborated with companies on Dragon Ball, such as BLT Productions, Ocean Studios, Pioneer. This led Funimation to begin licensing other anime to the U. S, on May 11,2005, Funimation was acquired by the now-defunct Navarre Corporation for US$100.4 million in cash and 1.8 million shares of Navarre stock. Funimation moved into the Lakeside Business District with a ten-year lease, in July 2008, Funimation confirmed that they had acquired distribution rights to several Geneon titles, including some that Geneon had left unfinished when they ceased operations. At Anime Expo 2008, Funimation announced that it had acquired over 30 titles from the Sojitz catalog that had previously licensed by ADV Films. In 2009, Funimation signed a deal with Toei Animation to stream several of its anime titles online through the Funimation website, in the first quarter of 2010, Navarre Corporation reclassified Funimation as discounted operations and began preparations to sell the company. Navarre released a statement in April 2011 confirming that Funimation has been sold to a group of investors, including original owner Gen Fukunaga, for $24 million. It is speculated that Funimation was sold at such a low cost because Navarre wanted to continue distributing goods in relation to the products, Navarre remained as exclusive distributor of Funimations titles until 2013 when the company shutdown. From this point on, virtually all titles simulcasted by Niconico were acquired by Funimation, the deal has since been severed. On June 22,2015, Funimation and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced a home video distribution deal

11.
TV Tokyo
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TV Tokyo Corporation TYO,9413 is a television station headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as Teleto, a blend of terebi and Tokyo and it is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime. The station is owned by Nihon Keizai Shimbun. TV Tokyo was established by the Japan Science Promotion Foundation in 1951, a limited liability company, Tokyo Channel 12 Production, was formed for the channel on July 1,1968. In October 1973, the name was shortened to Tokyo Channel 12, a month later, it became a general purpose TV station along with Japan Educational Television. In 1981, it was renamed, this time to Television Tokyo Channel 12. In 1983, TV Tokyo formed the Mega TON Network with TV Osaka, the company shifted its head offices from Shiba Park to Toranomon in December 1985. On June 25,2004, the company assumed its current English name of TV Tokyo Corporation, on November 7,2016, TV Tokyo moved its headquarters to new building at Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower from its old studios in Toranomon. Call sign, JOTX-DTV Remote controller ID7 Tokyo Skytree, Channel 23 Analog Transmission ceased on 24 July 2011, （ハケンOLは見た. ） Little Tokyo Live every Wednesday, around midnight Ii-tabi Yume-Kibun （いい旅・夢気分） Drive a GO. Saturday Special Stay at the countryside, （田舎に泊まろう. ） Japan Countdown Enka no Hanamichi （演歌の花道） Yan-yan Music studio （ヤンヤン歌うスタジオ） Drama 24 Yukemuri Sniper Uramiya Honpo URAKARA Majisuka Gakuen Y. Brave and Devils Castle （勇者ヨシヒコと魔王の城） Theater Gold 24 TWENTY FOUR Season 5 Sunday Big Valiety Monday Premiere

12.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

13.
AnimeCentral
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Anime Central is an annual three-day anime convention held during May at the Hyatt Regency OHare & Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. The convention is the third largest North American anime convention as of 2016, the convention is organized by the Midwest Animation Promotion Society. The convention typically offers anime viewing rooms, artist alley, autograph sessions, concerts, dances/rave, dealers room, gaming formal ball, karaoke, masquerade, panels, anime Central was formed in 1998 due to the lack of anime gatherings in the Central United States. During the 2001 convention, construction was occurring at the hotel while the event was underway, guest Robert DeJesus got married by guest Jan Scott-Frazier, an ordained minister, during the convention. At the 2003 convention, the lines to register for the convention ranged from 90 minutes for pre-registered attendees to 3 hours for others. In 2004 several scheduling problems occurred and opening ceremonies were delayed an hour due to audio-visual problems, the convention experienced problems with its registration system in 2008 resulting in extremely long lines. Two cosplay weddings were held at the convention in 2012, along with the Hyatt needing to be evacuated due to a fire alarm, anime Central hosted the 2014 US Finals for the World Cosplay Summit. Anime Central Aftershock. was a programming track offered at the Chicago Comic-Con on August 6–9,2009, programming included anime showings, artist appearances, contests, cosplay, and panel events

14.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

15.
Cartoon Network
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Cartoon Network is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Time Warner through the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary. It was founded by Betty Cohen and launched on October 1,1992, the channel primarily broadcasts childrens shows, mostly animated programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It operates daily from 6,00 AM to 11,00 PM, a Spanish language audio track for select programs is accessible via second audio programing, some cable and satellite companies offer the Spanish feed as a separate channel. It is also the channel of Turner-owned Boomerang. As of January 2016, Cartoon Network is available to approximately 94.0 million pay television households in the United States, however, Turner kept much of MGMs film and television library made prior to May 1986 and formed Turner Entertainment. On October 3,1988, its cable channel Turner Network Television was launched and had gained an audience with its film library. In 1991, Turner Entertainment purchased animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions for US $320 million, on February 18,1992, Turner Broadcasting System announced its plans to launch the Cartoon Network as an outlet for Turners considerable library of animation. Initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros. cartoons, the 1933–1957 Popeye cartoons, MGM cartoons, at first, cable providers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D. C. and Detroit carried the channel. By the time the network launched, Cartoon Network had an 8, from its launch until 1995, the networks announcers said the networks name with the word The added before Cartoon Network, thus calling the network The Cartoon Network. By the time that the network debuted, Cartoon Network also operated a block that aired on TNT. Cartoon Network was not the first cable channel to have relied on cartoons to attract an audience, however, Turner Broadcasting System had defied conventional wisdom before by launching CNN, a channel providing 24-hour news coverage. Initially, the channel would broadcast cartoons 24 hours a day, late Night Black and White showed early black-and-white cartoons, and ToonHeads would show three shorts with a similar theme and provide trivia about the cartoons. There was also an afternoon block called High Noon Toons. The majority of the animation that was shown on Cartoon Network no longer air on a regular basis, with the exception of Tom and Jerry. A challenge for Cartoon Network was to overcome its low penetration of existing cable systems, when launched on October 1,1992, the channel was only carried by 233 cable systems. However, it benefited from package deals, New subscribers to sister channels TNT and TBS could also get access to Cartoon Network through such deals. The high ratings of Cartoon Network over the couple of years led to more cable systems including it. By the end of 1994, Cartoon Network had become the fifth most popular channel in the United States

16.
Toonami
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Toonami is a brand name geared towards action-oriented programming, primarily consisting of American animation and Japanese anime. Originally an afternoon and evening block on Cartoon Network and ended on September 20,2008, the brand was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street. The name is a portmanteau of the cartoon and tsunami. Toonami initially ran on Cartoon Network from 1997 to 2008, in its original run, the block was famous for showcasing action anime that became widely popular with American audiences. It was also recognized for its distinctive space-themed backdrop, anime music videos, drum and bass-flavored soundtrack, on May 26,2012, Adult Swim relaunched Toonami as an adult-oriented animated block, which continues as a Saturday night action block from its forerunner, Midnight Run. Shows from the lineup have occasionally returned, along with newer shows. Toonami was Cartoon Networks primary action-animation block, the block premiered on March 17,1997. It initially replaced Power Zone, Cartoon Networks most recent incarnation of the Super Adventures block, Toonami was originally a weekday afternoon cartoon and action block hosted by Space Ghost villain-turned-producer Moltar at the Ghost Planet Industries building from 1997 to July 9,1999. It was originally a five-hour Saturday night block at midnight EST until March 2000, when it moved to weeknights in an hour-long format until January 2003. It ran from 1999 to 2003, broadcast from 12,00 am EST to 5,00 am from 1999 to 2000 and it consisted of anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Voltron, Robotech, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, and Outlaw Star. Midnight Run tended to have more blood and violence than its daytime counterpart, another event was Dragon Ball Z taking over the Midnight Run for a week starting on March 26–30,2001. Starting in September 2000, Toonami presented special interactive events known as Total Immersion Events, the first TIE was The Intruder, which introduced T. O. M. s companion, an AI matrix known as S. A. R. A. The Intruder was an eight episode mini-series that aired during Toonami from September 18–27,2000 and it involved the Absolution being attacked by an alien blob known only as the Intruder, which ultimately devoured T. O. M. Though The Intruder resulted in the destruction of T. O. M and he was soon after upgraded by S. A. R. A. From a short Bomberman-esque character to a taller, sleeker, deeper-voiced incarnation dubbed T. O. M, a Saturday morning incarnation, Toonami Rising Sun, ran from 2000 to 2003 at 9,00 am to noon. It later ran from 10,00 am to 1,00 pm and this block was somewhat hampered to avoid competing with sister network Kids WB. From July 30,2001, until June 28,2002, Kids WB aired a Toonami block that was, more or less, the Kids WB lineup with the Toonami name. In spring 2002, Kids WB announced that they would drop the Toonami name from their weekday lineup, fights to save the Absolution from an attack by a giant trash compactor

17.
List of .hack//Sign episodes
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Originally. hack//Sign was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4,2002 and September 25,2002. The same year Victor Entertainment released the score in three albums, along with a single containing the opening and ending of the series. In North America. hack//Sign was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment, and dubbed by PCB Productions, the dub aired on Cartoon Network between February 1,2003 and March 1,2004. The series was released on DVD, spanning six volumes. The limited edition ran from March 4,2003 to March 16,2004, a recap episode called Evidence and the DVD only episode Intermezzo were included in the sixth volume, and Unison was only included in its limited edition. Following the multimedia concept of the franchise, Bandai also acquired the license for the. hack games, the multimedia approach is shown through the DVD release as well. The limited edition not only included the three albums of the series, but also the soundtrack of. hack//Liminality and a demo disc of the first game. Neither of these releases contains the OVA episode Unison, list of. hack//Sign episodes at TV. com. hack//Sign at Anime News Networks encyclopedia

18.
.hack (video game series)
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. hack /dɒt hæk/ is a series of single-player action role-playing video games developed for the PlayStation 2 console by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai. Players may transfer their characters and data between games in the series, each game comes with an extra DVD containing an episode of. hack//Liminality, the accompanying original video animation series which details fictional events that occur concurrently with the games. The games are part of a franchise called Project. hack which explores the mysterious origins of The World. Set after the events of the anime series. hack//Sign, the focus on a player named Kite. The search evolves into an investigation of The World and its effects on the stability of the Internet. Critics gave the mixed reviews. It was praised for its setting and its commitment to preserve suspension of disbelief. However, it was criticized for uneven pacing and a lack of improvement between games, the commercial success of the franchise led to the production of. hack//frägment—a remake of the series with online capabilities—and. hack//G. U. Another video game trilogy. hack simulates an MMORPG, players assume the role of a participant in a game called The World. The player controls the player character Kite from a third-person perspective. The player manually controls the viewing perspective using the game controller, within the fictional game, players explore monster-infested fields and dungeons, and Root Towns that are free of combat. They can also log off from The World and return to a desktop interface which includes in-game e-mail, news, message boards. The player may save the game to a memory card both from the desktop and within The World at a Save Shop. A Data Flag appears on the file after the player completes the game, allowing the transfer of all aspects of the player character. The series is typical of action role-playing games, in which attack enemies in real time. The games action pauses whenever the menu is opened to select magic to cast, items to use, the player directly controls Kite and the other characters are controlled by artificial intelligence. The player may provide the computer-controlled characters with guidelines or issue direct commands. Most hostile creatures are contained within magic portals and combat will not begin until the character approaches the portal

19.
.hack//Liminality
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Liminality was separated into four volumes, each volume was released with its corresponding game. The initial episode is 45 minutes long, while subsequent episodes are 30 minutes long, the video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura. Primary Animation production was handled by Mashimos studio Bee Train which collaborated for the four games as well as handled major production on. hack//Sign. The games were packaged with DVDs featuring episodes of. hack//Liminality, the OVA series was meant to give perspective on fictional events happening in the real world outside the game. Vol.1, In The Case of Mai Minase Vol.2, In The Case of Yuki Aihara Vol.3, In The Case of Kyoko Tohno Vol.4, Trismegistus The episode starts when Tokuoka was kicked out of CC Corp. Mai and her boyfriend, Tomonari Kasumi, are taken to a due to both of them collapsing while playing a MMORPG called The World. Despite Mai waking up shortly after arriving at the hospital, Tomonari remains in a coma, for this, Mai is the object of rumors, especially when the clubhouse is closed after the incident. It is soon revealed that she heard a certain sound shortly before collapsing, and she discovers that it is A in C major. It was this sound that enabled her to wake up, and she meets Junichiro Tokuoka, and although she distrusts him at the beginning, as they investigate into Tomonaris coma, they soon become allies, if not friends. The investigation itself starts with Tokuoka accessing Tomonaris account on The World, Tokuoka accidentally opens the e-mail, and discovers that two users, Yukichin and Kyo, are close with Tomonari and have been harassing him with e-mails regarding his absence. It is also revealed during the course of the episode that Tomonari took the name Sieg as a contraction of Siegfried, from Richard Wagners operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Tokuoka and Mais investigation leads them to break into G-study, in order to attempt to recreate the situation so that they can find out why Mai. The sound starts up again when they enter a field, and although Mai saves herself, in desperation, Mai destroys the monitor and the computer that they were using, and drags him outside, where a splash of rainwater wakes him up. After that, the two pledge to find out just what C. C. Corp. is hiding, and what it will take to wake everyone up. An interesting easter egg is if you turn on the subtitles, in the scene where Tomonaris friend is fixing the computer and those keywords in the Theta server lead to where the Soul Blades reside. Tokuoka and Mai are on their way to meet with Yuki, Tokuoka gets stuck in traffic, and Mai goes to the library in Tokyo to attempt to look up information. During this time, she hears the sound, meanwhile, Yuki is watching a movie when suddenly THE WORLD flashes on the screen, the power goes out, and the employees attempt to evacuate the building. Yuki runs into a woman who works at the building

20.
.hack//Legend of the Twilight
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. hack//Legend of the Twilight is a science fiction manga series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and drawn by Rei Izumi. The twenty-two chapters of. hack//Legend of the Twilight appeared as a serial in the Japanese magazine Comptiq, and published in three tankōbon by Kadokawa Shoten from July 2002 to April 2004. Set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, the focuses on twins Rena and Shugo. After Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious girl, the series was adapted into a twelve episode anime of the same name directed by Koichi Mashimo and Koji Sawai, and produced by Bee Train. Tokyopop licensed the series for an English-language release in North America. It published the three volumes from September 2003 to April 2004, Bandai Entertainment had licensed the anime series for North American broadcast. The word Bracelet in the title was removed in North America, following the closure of Bandai Entertainment, Funimation announced at SDCC2013, that they have acquired 4. hack titles including Legend of the Twilight. Set in a fictional MMORPG called The World, the series follows twins Shugo, after winning a contest, Rena is given a pair of chibi avatars in the design of the legendary. hackers, Kite and BlackRose. After an odd occurrence, a mysterious AI named Aura gives Shugo the Twilight Bracelet, Rena and Shugo embark on an adventure to find Aura and unravel the mystery of the Twilight Bracelet. Along the way, Shugo and Rena befriend Mireille, a rare item hunter, the fierce Ouka, and Hotaru, a peaceful girl. While waiting for an event to start, they encounter a girl named Zefie. It is later realized that Zefie is a vagrant AI – an AI that acts independently outside the parameters of the game. Zefies presence upsets many, including the Cobalt Knights, a group of administrators that follow the rule If you cant control it, meanwhile, Balmung, another administrator in The World, encounters problems of his own. The suits, CC Corps upper tier executives, are displeased with what little action Balmung has taken against Shugo and his illegal item, Kamui, the leader of the Cobalt Knights, begins her pursuit of Shugo and company. She captures Shugo and his friends, but allows Mireille, Ouka, Shugo, Rena, and Zefie are left in a cell together. Rena and Shugo disagree over whether to stay until the end, after they come to an agreement to stay and fight, Zefie opens the door to the cell, freeing them. In the outside world, Ouka, Hotaru, and Mireille decide to return to The World, kazu, a friend of Balmung, meets up with Shugo and party, carrying Helbas Key, the key to an area called the Net Slums. Kamui shows up, demanding the key to the Net Slums with her knights in tow, Shugo and Kamui face off, which results in Kamui breaking her axe

21.
Anime
–
Anime is Japanese hand-drawn or computer animation. The word is the pronunciation of animation in Japanese, where this term references all animation. Arguably, the abstract approach to the words meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries other than Japan. For simplicity, many Westerners strictly view anime as a Japanese animation product, some scholars suggest defining anime as specifically or quintessentially Japanese may be related to a new form of orientalism. The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917, and Japanese anime production has continued to increase steadily. Anime is distributed theatrically, by way of television broadcasts, directly to home media and it is classified into numerous genres targeting diverse broad and niche audiences. Anime is an art form with distinctive production methods and techniques that have been adapted over time in response to emergent technologies. It consists of an ideal story-telling mechanism, combining art, characterization, cinematography. The production of anime focuses less on the animation of movement and more on the realism of settings as well as the use of effects, including panning, zooming. Being hand-drawn, anime is separated from reality by a gap of fiction that provides an ideal path for escapism that audiences can immerse themselves into with relative ease. Diverse art styles are used and character proportions and features can be quite varied, the anime industry consists of over 430 production studios, including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and Toei Animation. Despite comprising only a fraction of Japans domestic film market, anime makes up a majority of Japanese DVD sales and it has also seen international success after the rise of English-dubbed programming. This rise in popularity has resulted in non-Japanese productions using the anime art style. Anime is an art form, specifically animation, that all genres found in cinema. In Japanese, the term refers to all forms of animation from around the world. In English, anime is more used to denote a Japanese-style animated film or television entertainment or as a style of animation created in Japan. The etymology of the anime is disputed. The English term animation is written in Japanese katakana as アニメーション and is アニメ in its shortened form, in English, anime—when used as a common noun—normally functions as a mass noun

22.
Bandai Visual
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Most of the anime and films that has been distributed and licensed by Bandai Visual has been released under the Emotion label. Since the reorganisation of Bandai Namco Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the groups Visual and its subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company, Limited, and Lantis Company, Limited music publishing labels. Bandai Visual is currently a fully owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings, Bandai Namco announced on November 8,2007 that it would buy the voting shares it did not own between that date and December 10,2007 and turn the company into a wholly owned subsidiary. On December 18,2007, Bandai Namco announced that it owned 93. 63% of Bandai Visuals shares since the end of November, the remaining shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on February 15,2008 after Bandai Namco acquired the remaining 10% of the shares. Bandai Entertainment is a subsidiary of Bandai America, founded in 1998. Their first releases were under the AnimeVillage. com label up until 1999 when Bandai Entertainment started releasing its titles, despite its name it was not directly established by Bandai Visual. Originally separate from Bandai Visual USA, Namco Holdings announced that Bandai Entertainment would absorb Bandai Visual USA in 2008, the company also licensed manga series for release with English translation, and published American-made graphic novels. As with many North American anime distributors, Bandai Entertainment offered a fan support program to public screenings of licensed content at anime clubs. The company confirmed on January 2,2012 that they would stop offering new DVD, Blu-ray disc and manga releases by February, Bandai Entertainment was restructured to focus on licensing anime to other companies. On August 30,2012, Bandai America announced that it shut down Bandai Entertainment and discontinue distributing their home video. They made their final shipment to retailers on November 30,2012, many former Bandai Entertainment titles have been re-licensed by companies like Funimation, Discotek Media, Nozomi Entertainment & Sentai Filmworks. In 2017, Bandai Entertainment was temporarily relaunched by Manga Entertainment to release both seasons of Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex on Blu-ray, Beez Entertainment was the European branch of Bandai Entertainment that also distributed anime and music and were also owned by Bandai Namco Holdings. The name is an acronym for Bandai Entertainment European Zone, following the discontinuation of Bandai Entertainment, Beez has also stopped releasing anime in the European market. Their anime releases were licensed in North America by Bandai Entertainment, Bandai Visual USA was established in 2005 to distribute and market Bandai Visuals productions in North America. Unlike Bandai Entertainment, Bandai Visual USAs releases were of high quality and were aimed at collectors and their titles were released under the Honnêamise label. Bandai Visual USAs anime products were distributed in North America initially by Image Entertainment and later, Geneon Entertainment USA, on May 23,2008, Bandai Namco Holdings announced that Bandai Visual USA would be merged into Bandai Entertainment. Bandai Visual USA was dissolved on July 1,2008, Honnêamise was Bandai Visual USAs boutique label that distributed deluxe editions of anime and artsier products. The labels namesake comes from Royal Space Force, The Wings of Honnêamise, the label was shut down on July 1,2008 when Bandai Visual USA was absorbed into Bandai Entertainment

23.
.hack
–
. hack is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects, Project. hack and. hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai, the series is mainly followed through anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media. Project. hack was the first project of the. hack series and it launched in 2002 with the anime series. hack//Sign in April 2002 and the PlayStation 2 game. hack//Infection in June 2002. Project developers included Koichi Mashimo, Kazunori Ito, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, since then, Project. hack has spanned television, video games, manga, and novels. The four volumes, in sequence, are. hack//Infection. hack//Mutation. hack//Outbreak, and. hack//Quarantine. hack//frägment, the first. hack ORPG. It was released in only Japan, and the servers have since closed, ending all official online gameplay. hack//Enemy. The series focuses on a Wavemaster named Tsukasa, a character of a virtual-reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game called The World. Tsukasa wakes up to himself in a dungeon in The World. The situation gets worse when he discovers he is unable to log out and is trapped in the game, from then on, along with other players Tsukasa embarks on a quest to figure out the truth behind his abnormal situation. The series is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects such as anxiety, escapism, the series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4,2002 and September 25,2002. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment. hack//Legend of the Twilight is a twelve episode anime adaption of the series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki. The series was directed by Koichi Mashimo and Koji Sawai, set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, the series focuses on twins Rena and Shugo, who receive chibi avatars in the design of the legendary. hackers known as Kite and BlackRose. After Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious girl, the anime series features many of the same characters as the manga version, but with an alternative storyline. It was incorrectly called. hack//Dusk, among other names, in early fan-translated versions. hack//Liminality is a set of four DVD OVAs included with the. hack video game series for the PlayStation 2. Liminality is focused on the world as opposed to the games MMORPG The World. Separated into four volumes, each volume was released with its corresponding game, the initial episode is 45 minutes long and each subsequent episode is 30 minutes long. The video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura, in Japan, it was available when the Data Flag on the memory card file in. hack//Quarantine was present, whereas the American version included Gift on the fourth Liminality DVD. It is predominantly a comedy that makes fun of everything that developed throughout the series, Character designs are deliberately simplistic. hack//AI buster, a novel released under Project. hack

24.
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
–
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio. Before Gainax was founded under the name, Yoshiyuki served as animator on the second animated project. His first assignment as character designer in Gainax was for Royal Space Force, The Wings of Honnêamise, Sadamoto has since had many works credited to him, one of the most notable being Neon Genesis Evangelion where he worked as a designer for the characters. Yoshiyukis three most recent films include, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, according to Yasuo Otsuka, who guided Sadamoto as a newcomer, there are only three people whom he regarded as more skillful than himself that he has met during his career. One of them is Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the other two are Sadao Tsukioka who became a visual creator, and award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki. When Otsuka met the three men, he seems to have felt that he was taking off his hat to them at once, however, he thinks that only Miyazaki completely mastered a genuinely superior animation technique at present. He guesses, A too excellent person might despair in the group work, in general, I don’t want to draw something that I have to study further in order to draw. For example, I could not draw a medical manga because it’s impossible for me to make a lie about medicine, also things like Soccer and Baseball. I am unfamiliar with these worlds so it would be too difficult to show the actual plays, when asked about dream collaborations he revealed an interest in working with Robert Westall and Philip K. Dick but apologized These are all deceased people, sorry

25.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
–
Neon Genesis Evangelion, commonly referred to as Evangelion or Eva, is a Japanese anime television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996, the original Japanese cast includes Megumi Ogata as Shinji Ikari, Megumi Hayashibara as Rei Ayanami, and Yūko Miyamura as Asuka Langley Soryu. The music was composed by Shirō Sagisu, Evangelion is an apocalyptic anime, set in a futuristic Tokyo fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm. The series explores the experiences and emotions of Evangelion pilots and members of NERV as they attempt to prevent another catastrophe, in the series there are many references to psychoanalytic concepts, such as the oral stage, introjection, oral personality, ambivalence, and the death drive. It features religious symbolism throughout the series, including themes and imagery derived from Kabbalah, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Neon Genesis Evangelion gained widespread critical acclaim. Regarded as a critique and deconstruction of the genre, the series has become a cultural icon and influenced an artistic. Shinji witnesses the United Nations forces battling an Angel, one of a race of giant monstrous beings whose awakening was foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls. NERV officer Misato Katsuragi escorts Shinji into the NERV complex beneath the city, without training, Shinji is quickly overwhelmed in the battle, causing the Evangelion to go berserk and savagely kill the Angel on its own. Following hospitalization, Shinji moves in with Misato and begins settling into life in Tokyo-3, in his second battle, Shinji destroys an Angel but runs away after the battle, distraught. Misato confronts Shinji and he decides to remain a pilot, Evangelion Unit-00 is repaired and Shinji tries to befriend its pilot, a mysterious, and socially isolated teenage girl named Rei Ayanami. With Reis help, Shinji defeats another Angel, the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, teenage girl Asuka Langley Soryu, moves in with Misato and Shinji and joins her fellow pilots in defeating the next Angels. Shinjis schoolfriend Toji Suzuhara is selected for Unit-03, but during his first test synchronization with the Evangelion, Shinji is devastated and quits piloting the Evangelion, but is forced to return to destroy an Angel that has defeated both Asuka and Rei. Asuka loses her self-confidence following her defeat, and spirals into a deep depression and this is worsened by her next fight, against an Angel which attacks her mind. In the next battle, Rei self-destructs Unit-00 and dies to save Shinjis life, Misato and Shinji later visit the hospital where they find Rei alive but claiming she is the third Rei. Misato forces Ritsuko to reveal the secrets of NERV, the Evangelion graveyard. Asuka is reduced to a state by her depression. Kaworu, who initially befriends Shinji, is revealed to be the final Angel, Kaworu fights Shinji, then realizes that he must die if humanity is to thrive and asks Shinji to kill him. Despite his initial hesitation, Shinji kills Kaworu, soon after this act, NERV and SEELE trigger the forced evolution of humanity, termed the Human Instrumentality Project, in which the souls of all mankind are merged into one through Rei

26.
Escapism
–
Escapism is the avoidance of unpleasant, boring, arduous, scary, or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness. Entire industries have sprung up to foster a tendency of people to remove themselves from the rigors of daily life – especially into the digital world. Indeed, the OED defined escapism as “The tendency to seek, or the practice of seeking, however, many challenge the idea that escapism is fundamentally and exclusively negative. Similarly J. R. R. Tolkien argued for escapism in fantasy literature as the expression of reality within a Secondary world. Terry Pratchett considered that the twentieth-century had seen the development over time of a positive view of escapist literature. Freud considered a quota of escapist fantasy a necessary element in the life of humans and we simply cannot do without auxiliary constructions, Theodor Fontane once said. However, if permanent residence is taken up in some such psychic retreats, drugs cause some forms of escapism which can occur when certain mind-altering drugs are taken which make the participant forget the reality of where they are or what they are meant to be doing. Escapist societies appear often in literature, the Time Machine depicts the Eloi, a lackadaisical, insouciant race of the future, and the horror their happy lifestyle belies. The novel subtly criticizes capitalism, or at least classism, as a means of escape, other escapist societies in literature include The Reality Bug, by D. J McHale, where an entire civilization leaves their world in ruin while they jump into their perfect realities. The aim of the hero becomes a quest to make their realities seemingly less perfect in order to regain control over their dying planet. Jewish social philosopher Ernst Bloch wrote that utopias and images of fulfilment, however regressive they might be, according to Bloch, social justice could not be realized without seeing things fundamentally differently. The Norwegian psychologist Frode Stenseng has presented a model of escapism in relation to different types of activity engagements. He discusses the paradox that the state resembles psychological states obtainable through actions such as drug abuse, sexual masochism. Accordingly, he deduces that the state of escape can have positive and negative meanings and outcomes. Stenseng argues that there exist two forms of escapism with different affective outcomes dependent on the focus that lies behind the immersion in the activity. Stenseng has developed the scale to measure self-suppression and self-expansion in people´s favorite activities, such as sports, arts. Famous director Preston Sturges aimed to validate this notion by creating a film called Sullivans Travels, the film ends with a group of poor destitute men in jail watching a comedic Mickey Mouse cartoon that ultimately lifts their spirits

27.
Player character
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A player character or playable character is a fictional character in a role-playing or video game whose actions are directly controlled by a player of the game rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters, the actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling it, video games typically have one player character for each person playing the game. Some games offer a group of characters for the player to choose from. Where more than one character is available, the characters may have different abilities, strengths. A player character may sometimes be based on a real person, historical people and leaders may sometimes appear as characters too, particularly in strategy or empire building games such as in Sid Meiers Civilization series. Such a player character is properly an avatar as the player characters name. Avatars are also seen in casino game simulations. In many video games, and especially first-person shooters, the character is a blank slate without any notable characteristics or even backstory. Pac-Man, Crono, Link and Chell are examples of such characters and these characters are generally silent protagonists. Some games will go further, never showing or naming the player-character at all. This is somewhat common in first-person videogames, such as in Myst, having many different characters to play as and against, all possessing different moves and abilities, is necessary to create a larger gameplay variety in such games. In role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Final Fantasy, the character is usually of a certain race and class, each with strengths and weaknesses. The attributes of the characters are given as numerical values which can be increased as the gamer progresses and gains rank, a secret or unlockable character may be a playable character in a video game available after completing the game or meeting other requirements

28.
Virtual reality
–
VR also simulates a users physical presence in this environment. A person using virtual reality equipment is able to look around the world, and with high quality VR move about in it. Virtual reality is displayed with a virtual reality headset, VR headsets are head-mounted goggles with a screen in front of the eyes. Programs may include audio and sounds through speakers or headphones, advanced haptic systems may include tactile information, generally known as force feedback in medical, video gaming and military training applications. Some VR systems used in games can transmit vibrations and other sensations to the user through the game controller. Virtual reality also refers to remote communication environments which provide a presence of users with through telepresence and telexistence or the use of a virtual artifact. The immersive environment can be similar to the world in order to create a life-like experience grounded in reality or sci-fi. In 1938, Antonin Artaud described the nature of characters and objects in the theatre as la réalité virtuelle in a collection of essays. The English translation of book, published in 1958 as The Theater. The term artificial reality, coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since the 1970s, the term virtual reality was used in The Judas Mandala, a 1982 science fiction novel by Damien Broderick. Virtual has had the meaning being something in essence or effect, the term virtual has been used in the computer sense of not physically existing but made to appear by software since 1959. A dictionary definition for cyberspace states that word is a synonym for virtual reality. Virtual reality shares some elements with augmented reality, AR is a type of virtual reality technology that blends what the user sees in their real surroundings with digital content generated by computer software. The additional software-generated images with the virtual scene typically enhance way the real look in some way. Some AR systems use a camera to capture the surroundings or some type of display screen which the user looks at. The Virtual Reality Modelling Language, first introduced in 1994, was intended for the development of worlds without dependency on headsets. The Web3D consortium was founded in 1997 for the development of industry standards for web-based 3D graphics. The consortium subsequently developed X3D from the VRML framework as an archival and these components led to relative affordability for independent VR developers, and lead to the 2012 Oculus Rift kickstarter offering the first independently developed VR headset

29.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
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As in all RPGs, the player assumes the role of a character and takes control over many of that characters actions. MMORPGs are played throughout the world, worldwide revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and Western revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in North American, World of Warcraft, a popular MMORPG, has over 10 million subscribers as of November 2014. World of Warcrafts total revenue was $1.04 billion US dollars in 2014, Star Wars, The Old Republic, released in 2011, became the worlds Fastest-Growing MMOG Ever after gaining more than 1 million subscribers within the first three days of its launch. Although modern MMORPGs sometimes differ dramatically from their decedents, many of them share the basic characteristics. The majority of popular MMORPGs are based on traditional fantasy themes, some employ hybrid themes that either merge or replace fantasy elements with those of science fiction, sword and sorcery, or crime fiction. Still, others draw thematic material from American comic books, the occult, often these elements are developed using similar tasks and scenarios involving quests, monsters, and loot. In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the character is the primary goal. Traditionally, combat with monsters and completing quests for non-player characters, the accumulation of wealth is also a way to progress in many MMORPGs, and this is also traditionally best accomplished via combat. The cycle produced by these conditions, combat leading to new items allowing for more combat with no change in gameplay, is sometimes referred to as the level treadmill. The role-playing game Progress Quest was created as a parody of this trend, eve Online trains skills in real time rather than using experience points as a measure of progression. In some MMORPGs, there is no limit to a player’s level, MMORPGs that use this model often glorify top ranked players by displaying their avatars on the game’s website or posting their stats on a high score screen. Another common practice is to enforce a maximum level for all players. Once reached, the definition of a player’s progression changes, instead of being awarded primarily with experience for completing quests and dungeons, the player’s motivation to continue playing will be replaced with collecting money and equipment. Often, the range of equipment available at the maximum level will have increased aesthetic value to distinguish high ranking players in game between lower ranked players. Colloquially known as gear, this set of empowered weapons. Player motivation to outperform others is fueled by acquiring such items and is a significant determining factor in their success or failure in combat-related situations, also traditional in the genre is the eventual demand on players to team up with others in order to progress at the optimal rate. This sometimes forces players to change their schedules in order to keep up with the game-world

30.
The World (.hack)
–
. hack is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects, Project. hack and. hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai, the series is mainly followed through anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media. Project. hack was the first project of the. hack series and it launched in 2002 with the anime series. hack//Sign in April 2002 and the PlayStation 2 game. hack//Infection in June 2002. Project developers included Koichi Mashimo, Kazunori Ito, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, since then, Project. hack has spanned television, video games, manga, and novels. The four volumes, in sequence, are. hack//Infection. hack//Mutation. hack//Outbreak, and. hack//Quarantine. hack//frägment, the first. hack ORPG. It was released in only Japan, and the servers have since closed, ending all official online gameplay. hack//Enemy. The series focuses on a Wavemaster named Tsukasa, a character of a virtual-reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game called The World. Tsukasa wakes up to himself in a dungeon in The World. The situation gets worse when he discovers he is unable to log out and is trapped in the game, from then on, along with other players Tsukasa embarks on a quest to figure out the truth behind his abnormal situation. The series is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects such as anxiety, escapism, the series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4,2002 and September 25,2002. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment. hack//Legend of the Twilight is a twelve episode anime adaption of the series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki. The series was directed by Koichi Mashimo and Koji Sawai, set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, the series focuses on twins Rena and Shugo, who receive chibi avatars in the design of the legendary. hackers known as Kite and BlackRose. After Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious girl, the anime series features many of the same characters as the manga version, but with an alternative storyline. It was incorrectly called. hack//Dusk, among other names, in early fan-translated versions. hack//Liminality is a set of four DVD OVAs included with the. hack video game series for the PlayStation 2. Liminality is focused on the world as opposed to the games MMORPG The World. Separated into four volumes, each volume was released with its corresponding game, the initial episode is 45 minutes long and each subsequent episode is 30 minutes long. The video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura, in Japan, it was available when the Data Flag on the memory card file in. hack//Quarantine was present, whereas the American version included Gift on the fourth Liminality DVD. It is predominantly a comedy that makes fun of everything that developed throughout the series, Character designs are deliberately simplistic. hack//AI buster, a novel released under Project. hack

31.
Animax
–
Animax, stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed cartoons in Japanese language, Animax is the first and largest 24-hour network in the world dedicated to anime and cartoons. Animax has separate 24-hour TV channels for Japan, Animax Asia, and a VOD service in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Established on May 20,1998 by Sony, Animax Broadcast Japan Inc. originally premiered in Japan on June 1, the same year, across the SKY PerfecTV. Headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and presided by Masao Takiyama, Animaxs shareholders and founders include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sunrise, Toei Animation, TMS Entertainment and its founders also include noted anime producer and production designer Yoshirō Kataoka. The network began broadcasting in high definition from October 2009, Animax also exhibits affiliations with anime pioneer Osamu Tezukas Tezuka Productions company, Pierrot, Nippon Animation, and numerous others. Noted Japanese celebrities and personalities to have appeared on Animax with their own programs, include actress Natsuki Katō, the networks narrators are the voice actors Yukari Tamura and Kōsuke Okano, and from October 2007, Sayuri Yahagi. Apart from operating its business primarily as a network, Animax has also begun operating a mobile television service. In February 2007, Animax announced that it would be launching a television service of its network on the mobile phone company MOBAHO. From April 2007, having its programming being viewable by the mobile phone subscribers. Since July 2011 a program called STUDIO MUSIX has been transmitted the first Sunday of every month, in each episode theres a segment of Mayn and the guests on an interview and also a live stage featuring them. Cartoon series broadcast include Transformers, Generation 1, Transformers Prime, Transformers, Generation 2, Ying Yang Yo, Jackie Chan Adventures, Metalocallypse, Arms Micron, joe, Renegades, Sonic X and Digimon Adventure appears in MorningMax, released as 2015. Animax launched separate Asian versions of the channel featuring its programming within separate networks and feeds in the respective regions. The first one was launched in Taiwan and the Philippines on January 1,2004, on July 5,2004, Animax started operations across South Asia including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives, featuring its programming within an English-language feed. On April 29,2006, Animax started its operations in South Korea, on August 31,2006, Animax launched its Malaysian feed. Animax used the latest logo launched on May 3,2010, as of 2016 Animax has separate 24-hour TV channels for Animax Asia and South Korea. Animax was launched in Latin America on July 31,2005, replacing Locomotion after Sonys purchase from Hearst Corporation and Corus Entertainment, the channels non-anime programming were removed from the lineup, which was later replaced with an all-anime lineup. Animax Latin America began operating across the region and broadcasting its anime programming

32.
YTV (TV channel)
–
YTV is a Canadian English-language Category A cable and satellite television specialty channel that is owned by Corus Entertainment. Its programming consists of original live-action and animated series, movies. YTV operates two time-shifted feeds, running on both Eastern and Pacific Time Zone schedules and it is available in over 11 million Canadian households as of 2013. The channel was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 1987, the two largest shareholders in YTV were two cable companies, Rogers Cable and CUC Broadcasting, which was later acquired by Shaw Communications. By 1995, through acquisitions and trades, Shaw had secured full control of YTV. The channel continues to be owned by YTV Canada, now owned by Corus Entertainment under its Corus Kids division. In 1998, YTV began to use a Nickelodeon-style gross-out factor in its branding, with much less slime, over the years, YTV used a number of different on-air logos, featuring the same arrangement of white letters on various bizarre and imaginative creatures. The logo used on production credits, and presumably the official logo, the channels advertisements often focused on promoting the brand through crude humour. The YTV Oneworld license was used to launch Nickelodeon Canada, in the fall of 2005, a new post-6,00 p. m. advertising style was developed for older audiences, which used a much simpler logo and sleeker packaging with barely any gross-out tactics. In the spring of 2006, the logo first appeared on YTVs promos. In 2007, this look was adopted for the entire channel, in September 2009, the logo was changed slightly, it featured new colours, and the background was simplified. Variations to the bumpers were reduced, instead, there are large, opaque digital on-screen graphics telling viewers which programs are coming next, and promotions of the programs. In September 2012, the logo was changed aesthetically, in 2013, after Corus Entertainment completed their acquisition of the TELETOON Canada Inc. networks, YTV began airing reruns of select Teletoon programming, including original and acquired series. In turn, the anime series, such as Pokemon. Franchise, along both the second season of Oh No. Its An Alien Invasion and Power Rangers, began airing on Teletoon, on October 6,2014, the channel underwent a brand refresh, with new graphics and bumps created by Eloisa Iturbe Studio. In addition, the channel updated its logo by having it face upwards to the left instead of directly to the audience, in its early years, YTV filled its schedule with relatively old and obscure acquired programs. Programs such as Are You Being Served, keeping Up Appearances, and Yes Minister were broadcast in late-night time slots, and aired free of time and content edits

33.
Bandai
–
Bandai Co. Ltd. is a Japanese toy maker and former video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It was the worlds fourth-largest producer of toys, some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs. Its headquarters is located in Taitō, Tokyo, after its merger with game developer and amusement facility operator Namco, Bandai Company is now under the management of Bandai Namco Holdings and a member of Bandai Namco Group. After group reorganisation in 2006, Bandai heads the groups Toys, in the 1960s Bandai expanded to include export sales. Bandais racing car set, which first appeared in 1962, became a huge success, the 1970s continued to see Bandai expand, with Bandai Models being established in 1971. Although not their most profitable range, Bandais 1/48 scale AFV models dominated that segment of the kit market. Bandai America Inc. was established as local US sales/marketing operation in 1978, spacewarp, a line of build-it-yourself toy rolling ball roller coasters was introduced by Bandai in the 1980s. Before the formation of Bandai Namco Holdings, Bandai had many subsidiaries, after group reorganization in 2006, they are managed under several strategic business units of the group. Further detail, In 1971, Bandai founded its subsidiary company Popy which helped to launch such as Chogokin. It was merged into its parent company in 1983, Bandai USA is the American distribution arm of Bandai that makes toy products for the U. S. market and manufactures Power Rangers, Big Hero 6, Digimon, and Ben 10 toys. Other past products include Alienators, Evolution Continues Astro Boy Beetleborgs Ben 10 Big Hero 6 Cardcaptor Sakura Cyclonians Dick Tracy D. I. C. E, jelly Jamm Bandai Visual Co. Ltd. produces and distributes many popular anime and tokusatsu titles. These titles include Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Outlaw Star, escaflowne, and the popular Gundam, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Super Sentai series. Their subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company Limited, in which the logo is the Moai and they now head the Visual and Music Contents SBU. Their North American division, Bandai Visual USA was absorbed into Bandai Entertainment on July 1,2008 and their headquarters in the United States were located in Cypress, California. They had a European subsidiary named Beez Entertainment who handled European licensing & distribution rights to their library, the first part of Beez Entertainments name stood for Bandai Entertainment European Zone, as Bandai Entertainment had operations in Europe. Beez Entertainment was based in France, in addition, Bandai Visual also took over Beez Entertainment as their entry into the European market, and Beez Entertainment also continued to be part of Bandai as well. However, Bandai Entertainment is no longer acquiring licenses to new anime, also, Beez Entertainment is no longer releasing new anime in Europe. Carddass is the Bandai subsidiary responsible for releasing trading card based on popular Bandai franchises

34.
Red herring (plot device)
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A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies. The origin of the expression is unknown, the phrase was later borrowed to provide a formal name for the logical fallacy and literary device. As an informal fallacy, the red herring falls into a class of relevance fallacies. Unlike the straw man, which is premised on a distortion of the partys position. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a red herring may be intentional, or unintentional, the expression is mainly used to assert that an argument is not relevant to the issue being discussed. For example, I think we should make the academic requirements stricter for students, I recommend you support this because we are in a budget crisis, and we do not want our salaries affected. The second sentence, though used to support the first sentence, in fiction and non-fiction a red herring may be intentionally used by the writer to plant a false clue that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. The characters name is a loose Italian translation of red herring, in a literal sense, there is no such fish as a red herring, it refers to a particularly strong kipper, a fish that has been strongly cured in brine and/or heavily smoked. This process makes the fish particularly pungent smelling and, with strong enough brine, turns its flesh reddish. In its literal sense as a strongly cured kipper, the term can be dated to the century, in the poem The Treatise by Walter of Bibbesworth. Prior to 2008, the sense of red herring was thought to originate from a supposed technique of training young scent hounds. There are variations of the story, but according to one version, later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odour of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring perpendicular to the animals trail to confuse the dog. The dog eventually learned to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent, another variation of the dog story is given by Robert Hendrickson who says escaping convicts used the pungent fish to throw off hounds in pursuit. Ross researched the origin of the story and found the earliest reference to using herrings for training animals was in a tract on horsemanship published in 1697 by Gerland Langbaine. Langbaine recommended a method of training horses by dragging the carcass of a cat or fox so that the horse would be accustomed to following the chaos of a hunting party and he says if a dead animal is not available, a red herring would do as a substitute. This recommendation was misunderstood by Nicholas Cox, published in the notes of another book around the same time, either way, the herring was not used to distract the hounds or horses from a trail, rather to guide them along it

35.
Computer virus
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A computer virus is a type of malicious software program that, when executed, replicates by reproducing itself or infecting other computer programs by modifying them. Infecting computer programs can include as well, data files, or the sector of the hard drive. When this replication succeeds, the areas are then said to be infected with a computer virus. The term virus is also commonly, but erroneously, used to refer to types of malware. The majority of active malware threats are actually trojan horse programs or computer worms rather than computer viruses, the term computer virus, coined by Fred Cohen in 1985, is a misnomer. Virus writers use social engineering deceptions and exploit detailed knowledge of security vulnerabilities to gain access to their hosts computers and computing resources. Computer viruses currently cause billions of dollars worth of damage each year, due to causing system failure, wasting computer resources, corrupting data, increasing maintenance costs. The work of von Neumann was later published as the Theory of self-reproducing automata, in his essay von Neumann described how a computer program could be designed to reproduce itself. Von Neumanns design for a computer program is considered the worlds first computer virus. In 1972, Veith Risak, directly building on von Neumanns work on self-replication, the article describes a fully functional virus written in assembler programming language for a SIEMENS 4004/35 computer system. In 1980 Jürgen Kraus wrote his diplom thesis Selbstreproduktion bei Programmen at the University of Dortmund, in his work Kraus postulated that computer programs can behave in a way similar to biological viruses. The Creeper virus was first detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, Creeper was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN Technologies in 1971. Creeper used the ARPANET to infect DEC PDP-10 computers running the TENEX operating system, Creeper gained access via the ARPANET and copied itself to the remote system where the message, Im the creeper, catch me if you can. The Reaper program was created to delete Creeper, in fiction, the 1973 Michael Crichton sci-fi movie Westworld made an early mention of the concept of a computer virus, being a central plot theme that causes androids to run amok. Alan Oppenheimers character summarizes the problem by stating that. theres a pattern here which suggests an analogy to an infectious disease process. To which the replies are stated, Perhaps there are similarities to disease and. In 1982, a program called Elk Cloner was the first personal computer virus to appear in the wild—that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created. Written in 1981 by Richard Skrenta while in the grade at Mount Lebanon High School near Pittsburgh, it attached itself to the Apple DOS3.3 operating system

36.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II

37.
.hack character classes
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. hack is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects, Project. hack and. hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai, the series is mainly followed through anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media. Project. hack was the first project of the. hack series and it launched in 2002 with the anime series. hack//Sign in April 2002 and the PlayStation 2 game. hack//Infection in June 2002. Project developers included Koichi Mashimo, Kazunori Ito, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, since then, Project. hack has spanned television, video games, manga, and novels. The four volumes, in sequence, are. hack//Infection. hack//Mutation. hack//Outbreak, and. hack//Quarantine. hack//frägment, the first. hack ORPG. It was released in only Japan, and the servers have since closed, ending all official online gameplay. hack//Enemy. The series focuses on a Wavemaster named Tsukasa, a character of a virtual-reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game called The World. Tsukasa wakes up to himself in a dungeon in The World. The situation gets worse when he discovers he is unable to log out and is trapped in the game, from then on, along with other players Tsukasa embarks on a quest to figure out the truth behind his abnormal situation. The series is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects such as anxiety, escapism, the series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4,2002 and September 25,2002. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment. hack//Legend of the Twilight is a twelve episode anime adaption of the series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki. The series was directed by Koichi Mashimo and Koji Sawai, set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, the series focuses on twins Rena and Shugo, who receive chibi avatars in the design of the legendary. hackers known as Kite and BlackRose. After Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious girl, the anime series features many of the same characters as the manga version, but with an alternative storyline. It was incorrectly called. hack//Dusk, among other names, in early fan-translated versions. hack//Liminality is a set of four DVD OVAs included with the. hack video game series for the PlayStation 2. Liminality is focused on the world as opposed to the games MMORPG The World. Separated into four volumes, each volume was released with its corresponding game, the initial episode is 45 minutes long and each subsequent episode is 30 minutes long. The video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura, in Japan, it was available when the Data Flag on the memory card file in. hack//Quarantine was present, whereas the American version included Gift on the fourth Liminality DVD. It is predominantly a comedy that makes fun of everything that developed throughout the series, Character designs are deliberately simplistic. hack//AI buster, a novel released under Project. hack

38.
Artificial intelligence
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Artificial intelligence is intelligence exhibited by machines. Colloquially, the artificial intelligence is applied when a machine mimics cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning. As machines become increasingly capable, mental facilities once thought to require intelligence are removed from the definition, for instance, optical character recognition is no longer perceived as an example of artificial intelligence, having become a routine technology. AI research is divided into subfields that focus on specific problems or on specific approaches or on the use of a tool or towards satisfying particular applications. The central problems of AI research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, natural language processing, perception, general intelligence is among the fields long-term goals. Approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence, and traditional symbolic AI, Many tools are used in AI, including versions of search and mathematical optimization, logic, methods based on probability and economics. The AI field draws upon computer science, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, neuroscience, the field was founded on the claim that human intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. Some people also consider AI a danger to humanity if it progresses unabatedly, while thought-capable artificial beings appeared as storytelling devices in antiquity, the idea of actually trying to build a machine to perform useful reasoning may have begun with Ramon Llull. With his Calculus ratiocinator, Gottfried Leibniz extended the concept of the calculating machine, since the 19th century, artificial beings are common in fiction, as in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein or Karel Čapeks R. U. R. The study of mechanical or formal reasoning began with philosophers and mathematicians in antiquity, in the 19th century, George Boole refined those ideas into propositional logic and Gottlob Frege developed a notational system for mechanical reasoning. Around the 1940s, Alan Turings theory of computation suggested that a machine, by shuffling symbols as simple as 0 and 1 and this insight, that digital computers can simulate any process of formal reasoning, is known as the Church–Turing thesis. Along with concurrent discoveries in neurology, information theory and cybernetics, the first work that is now generally recognized as AI was McCullouch and Pitts 1943 formal design for Turing-complete artificial neurons. The field of AI research was born at a conference at Dartmouth College in 1956, attendees Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky and Arthur Samuel became the founders and leaders of AI research. At the conference, Newell and Simon, together with programmer J. C, shaw, presented the first true artificial intelligence program, the Logic Theorist. This spurred tremendous research in the domain, computers were winning at checkers, solving problems in algebra, proving logical theorems. By the middle of the 1960s, research in the U. S. was heavily funded by the Department of Defense and laboratories had been established around the world. AIs founders were optimistic about the future, Herbert Simon predicted, machines will be capable, within twenty years, Marvin Minsky agreed, writing, within a generation. The problem of creating artificial intelligence will substantially be solved and they failed to recognize the difficulty of some of the remaining tasks

Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the m

1.
Fairy tales and legends, such as Dobrynya Nikitich 's rescue of Zabava Putyatichna from the dragon Gorynych, have been an important source for fantasy.

2.
Many works are unclear as to the belief of the authors in the marvels they contain, as in the enchanted garden from the Decameron.

Mystery fiction
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Mystery fiction is a genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be solved. In a closed circle of suspects, each suspect must have a credible motive, the central character must be a detective who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts fairly presented to the reader. Mystery fiction can be detective sto

1.
Mystery, 1934 mystery fiction magazine cover

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Novels by Agatha Christie

Yuki Kajiura
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Yuki Kajiura is a Japanese composer and music producer. She also assisted Toshihiko Sahashi with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Kajiura has also composed for video games, including the cutscene music for Xenosaga II and the entire Xenosaga III game soundtrack. She composed the music for NHKs April 2014 morning drama Ha

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Yuki Kajiura at Anime Expo 2012

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Yuki Kajiura at Anime Expo 2012

Bee Train
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Bee Train Production, commonly referred to simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Originally, Bee Train was a subsidiary of Production I. G along with Xebec but in February 2006, it ended its relationship and this studio-as-hospital approach was allegedly invented by Mashimo during his prolonged stay

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Bee Train logo

Australasia
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Australasia, a region of Oceania, comprises Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. Charles de Brosses coined the term in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes and he derived it from the Latin for south of Asia and differentiated the area from Polynesia and the southeast Pacific. The

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Wallace Line separates Australasian and Southeast Asian fauna.

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Australasia

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Aoraki / Mount Cook in the Southern Alps of New Zealand

Madman Entertainment
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Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes Australian and foreign films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. Madman is one of the entertainment companies in Australia. It employs approx 100 people and has a turnover of around A$50 million. Its headquarters is in Richmond, Victoria,

1.
Madman Entertainment

Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europ

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Reconstruction of Herodotus ' world map

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A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham)

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Early modern depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical Europa of the 8th century BC.

Beez Entertainment
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Most of the anime and films that has been distributed and licensed by Bandai Visual has been released under the Emotion label. Since the reorganisation of Bandai Namco Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the groups Visual and its subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company, Limited, and Lantis Company, Limited music publishing labels. Band

1.
Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. バンダイビジュアル株式会社

Northern America
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Northern America is the northernmost subcontinent of North America. It lies directly north of the region of Middle America, consisting of Mexico, the Caribbean, the land border between the two regions coincides with the border between the United States and Mexico. Geopolitically, according to the scheme of geographic regions and subregions, Norther

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Northern America

Funimation
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Funimation is an American entertainment, anime, and foreign licensing company based in Flower Mound, Texas. The studio is one of the distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America alongside Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks. It was founded on May 9,1994 by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy as FUNimation Productions, with

1.
Funimation

TV Tokyo
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TV Tokyo Corporation TYO,9413 is a television station headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as Teleto, a blend of terebi and Tokyo and it is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime. The station is owned by Nihon Keizai Shimbun. TV Tokyo was established by the Japan Science Promotion Found

2.
JOTX-(D)TV

3.
Tennōzu Isle studios

United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border wi

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Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.

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Flag

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.

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The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

AnimeCentral
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Anime Central is an annual three-day anime convention held during May at the Hyatt Regency OHare & Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. The convention is the third largest North American anime convention as of 2016, the convention is organized by the Midwest Animation Promotion Society. The convention typically offers anime v

United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

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Flag

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The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

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The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Cartoon Network
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Cartoon Network is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Time Warner through the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary. It was founded by Betty Cohen and launched on October 1,1992, the channel primarily broadcasts childrens shows, mostly animated programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It operates d

1.
Cartoon Network

Toonami
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Toonami is a brand name geared towards action-oriented programming, primarily consisting of American animation and Japanese anime. Originally an afternoon and evening block on Cartoon Network and ended on September 20,2008, the brand was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street. The name is a portmanteau of the cartoo

1.
Past Toonami logos

List of .hack//Sign episodes
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Originally. hack//Sign was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4,2002 and September 25,2002. The same year Victor Entertainment released the score in three albums, along with a single containing the opening and ending of the series. In North America. hack//Sign was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment, and dubbed by PCB Product

1.
Contents

.hack (video game series)
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. hack /dɒt hæk/ is a series of single-player action role-playing video games developed for the PlayStation 2 console by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai. Players may transfer their characters and data between games in the series, each game comes with an extra DVD containing an episode of. hack//Liminality, the accompanying original video anim

1.
The player's party, consisting of Kite, BlackRose, and Wiseman, is battling a monster. The red reticle shows which enemy is currently being targeted. Players may attack in real time by pressing the X button.

2.
.hack//Game Music Perfect Collection

.hack//Liminality
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Liminality was separated into four volumes, each volume was released with its corresponding game. The initial episode is 45 minutes long, while subsequent episodes are 30 minutes long, the video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura. Primary Animation production was handled by Mashimos studio Bee

1.
.hack//Liminality Original Soundtrack Plus

.hack//Legend of the Twilight
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. hack//Legend of the Twilight is a science fiction manga series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and drawn by Rei Izumi. The twenty-two chapters of. hack//Legend of the Twilight appeared as a serial in the Japanese magazine Comptiq, and published in three tankōbon by Kadokawa Shoten from July 2002 to April 2004. Set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, th

1.
Cover of the omnibus edition (2009), depicting the two protagonists, Shugo (left) and Rena (right)

Anime
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Anime is Japanese hand-drawn or computer animation. The word is the pronunciation of animation in Japanese, where this term references all animation. Arguably, the abstract approach to the words meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries other than Japan. For simplicity, many Westerners strictly view anime as a Japanese anim

1.
A cel from Namakura Gatana, the earliest surviving Japanese animated short made for cinemas, produced in 1917

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A frame from Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (1944), the first feature-length anime film

3.
Anime artists employ many distinct visual styles

Bandai Visual
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Most of the anime and films that has been distributed and licensed by Bandai Visual has been released under the Emotion label. Since the reorganisation of Bandai Namco Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the groups Visual and its subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company, Limited, and Lantis Company, Limited music publishing labels. Band

1.
Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. バンダイビジュアル株式会社

.hack
–
. hack is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects, Project. hack and. hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai, the series is mainly followed through anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media. Project

1.
.hack logo

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
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Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio. Before Gainax was founded under the name, Yoshiyuki served as animator on the second animated project. His first assignment as character designer in Gainax was for Royal Space Force, The Wings of Honnêamise, Sadamoto has si

Neon Genesis Evangelion
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Neon Genesis Evangelion, commonly referred to as Evangelion or Eva, is a Japanese anime television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996, the original Japanese cast includes Megumi Ogata as Shinji Ikari, Megumi Hayashibara as Rei Ayanami, and Yū

1.
The cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion as depicted on the Japanese "Genesis" (volume) 14 laserdisc and VHS cover

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Title card for the anime series

3.
Gainax studio in Koganei, Tokyo

Escapism
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Escapism is the avoidance of unpleasant, boring, arduous, scary, or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness. Entire industries have sprung up to foster a tendency of people to remove themselves from the rigors of daily life – especially

1.
King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an escapist who used to "escape" into the world of Wagnerian mythology. A caricature portrays him as Lohengrin.

Player character
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A player character or playable character is a fictional character in a role-playing or video game whose actions are directly controlled by a player of the game rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters, the actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game

1.
A player character named "Contar Stoneskull" in Legend of Grimrock. The squares contain icons representing items he is wearing and items he is carrying on his adventure. Statistics such as his health and experience are also listed.

Virtual reality
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VR also simulates a users physical presence in this environment. A person using virtual reality equipment is able to look around the world, and with high quality VR move about in it. Virtual reality is displayed with a virtual reality headset, VR headsets are head-mounted goggles with a screen in front of the eyes. Programs may include audio and so

1.
View-Master, a stereoscopic visual simulator, was introduced in 1939.

2.
Battlezone, an arcade video game from 1980, used 3D vector graphics to immerse the player in a VR world.(Atari).

3.
A 2013 developer version of Oculus Rift from Oculus VR, a company Facebook acquired in 2014 for $2 billion

4.
Another upcoming VR headset called HTC Vive, developed in co-production between HTC and Valve Corporation.

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
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As in all RPGs, the player assumes the role of a character and takes control over many of that characters actions. MMORPGs are played throughout the world, worldwide revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and Western revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in Nor

1.
Players interacting in Argentum Online, an MMORPG

2.
MUD1, an early multi-user game

The World (.hack)
–
. hack is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects, Project. hack and. hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai, the series is mainly followed through anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media. Project

1.
.hack logo

Animax
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Animax, stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed cartoons in Japanese language, Animax is the first and largest 24-hour network in the world dedicated to anime and cartoons. Animax has separate 24-hour TV channels for Japan, Animax Asia, and a VOD serv

1.
Primary businesses

2.
Animax diffusion as of May 2012.

YTV (TV channel)
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YTV is a Canadian English-language Category A cable and satellite television specialty channel that is owned by Corus Entertainment. Its programming consists of original live-action and animated series, movies. YTV operates two time-shifted feeds, running on both Eastern and Pacific Time Zone schedules and it is available in over 11 million Canadia

1.
YTV logo 2014-Present

Bandai
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Bandai Co. Ltd. is a Japanese toy maker and former video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It was the worlds fourth-largest producer of toys, some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs. Its headquarters is located in Taitō, Tokyo, after its merger with game developer and amusemen

1.
Saab 96 tin plate toy car by Bandai

2.
Bandai Co., Ltd. 株式会社バンダイ

3.
Bandai headquarters

4.
2006 Bandai Direzza SC430.

Red herring (plot device)
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A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies. The origin of the expression is unknown, the phrase was late

1.
Herrings kippered by smoking and salting until they turn reddish-brown, i.e. a "red herring". Prior to refrigeration kipper was known for being strongly pungent. In 1807, William Cobbett wrote how he used red herrings to lay a false trail, while training hunting dogs —an apocryphal story that was probably the origin of the idiom.

Computer virus
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A computer virus is a type of malicious software program that, when executed, replicates by reproducing itself or infecting other computer programs by modifying them. Infecting computer programs can include as well, data files, or the sector of the hard drive. When this replication succeeds, the areas are then said to be infected with a computer vi

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Hex dump of the Blaster worm, showing a message left for Microsoft CEO Bill Gates by the worm's programmer

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The MacMag virus 'Universal Peace', as displayed on a Mac in March of 1988

Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings,

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A collage of Venice: at the top left is the Piazza San Marco, followed by a view of the city, then the Grand Canal, and (smaller) the interior of La Fenice and, finally, the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

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UNESCO World Heritage Site

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Photography of Venice at dusk

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The Grand Canal seen from the bridge at Ponte di Rialto

.hack character classes
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. hack is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects, Project. hack and. hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai, the series is mainly followed through anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media. Project

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.hack logo

Artificial intelligence
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Artificial intelligence is intelligence exhibited by machines. Colloquially, the artificial intelligence is applied when a machine mimics cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning. As machines become increasingly capable, mental facilities once thought to require intelligence are removed from the definition,

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Kismet, a robot with rudimentary social skills

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An ontology represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts.

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Typical tile-based, overhead gameplay of tactical RPGs. Some full-fledged CRPGs also featured a highly tactical form of combat reminiscent of RPGs' pen-and-paper origins. Pictured here is The Battle for Wesnoth.

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The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

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A late Roman statue depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice

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Coin of Theodoric

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Mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers

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Symphonies are extended compositions written for orchestra. Pictured here is a performance of the 8th Symphony of Gustav Mahler in the Kölner Philharmonie. The orchestra is the Wuppertaler Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Heinz-Walter Florin.